Bob Beers on Environment

Require voter approval for $200M soccer stadium

Bob Beers spots a pickup truck heading his direction: "Don't get out," he yells. He's thrusting a clipboard and pen toward the truck window. "Do you want to sign our petition?" he asks the couple inside. The issue: public funding for a $200 million
downtown soccer stadium, something Beers and other opponents want to see put to voters in the June election.

Over the course of a 10-hour day, dozens of people skeptical of the stadium plan stop by Beers' makeshift outpost, fashioned using the
hatchback of his silver PT Cruiser and a small tent. He meticulously chose this particular spot because it is near the densest residential area in Las Vegas.

Returning from the truck with two more signatures in hand, Beers grins broadly.
He was having fun.

Beers found a new cause in the soccer stadium, an opportunity to use his intellect and savvy with numbers to poke holes in complicated and often opaque plans to use $56 million of public money for the $200 million project.